Internal finishing of shoes



April 1937- s. P. LOVELL INTERNAL FINISHING OF SHOES I Filed Feb. 7, 1935 jaw?? d" f I JZMZZ Patented Apr. 13, 1937 INTERNAL FINISHING F SHOES Stanley P. Lovell, Newton, Mass, assignor to Beckwith Manufacturing Company, Dover, N. H., a, corporation of New Hampshire Application February '1, 1935, Serial No. 5,423

6 Claims.

This invention relates to the internal finishing of shoes and the resulting shoes no matter what method of attaching the shoe upper to the bottom is employed, the. usefulness of which resides in both prolonged life and prolonged proper'fit of the shoes.

The various makes of shoes, including Goodyear welt, McKay, cement, Littleway, stitchdown,

and turned shoes, are built around an innersole, 10 or, in the case of 2. turned shoe, one sole serving both as an innersole and outersole. Because the innersole is the base or bottom that gives shape to the finished shoe, if the innersole becomes distorted or misshapen in service, the shape of the shoe is correspondingly affected. It is known that the normal foot, lying against the innersole and covered by the shoe upper, discharges perspiration which is absorbed in considerable amount by the innersole. Upon drying out, such as occurs at night time, the innersole contracts. This repeated wetting and contraction is suffered largely by the inner facial portion of the innersole, in consequence of which an innersole, after a few weeks of service, may present a curved or rounded appearance and may have bulged out so much that its external surface contacting with the outersole may be visibly outwardly concave.

Again, many feet are known to be pathological in the sense that they discharge appreciable amounts of urea and/or uric acid, which, particularly in the presence of the tannic acid apt to be present in the innersole, react with the leather of the innersole. For instance, urea being alkaline tends to combine with tannic acid to form a tannate, which, besides being a cause of footburn, appears to be destructive of the leather, causing it to become brittle and to crack.

Because of the foregoing destructive actions taking place in the shoe as it is being Worn, the

marginal edge of the innersole lying next to the rising internal side walls of the shoe and defining the shape or lines of the new shoe tends to sepa-' rate or pull away from the shoe lining during service and thus to leave a considerable gap or opening between such edge and the lining of the shoe upper. Since the side walls of the shoe upper are thus left unbacked or unsupported by the edge of the innersole, they tend to go out of shape and the shoe upper asa whole generally 5 loses its original tailored effect or lines even during the early wear of the shoe.

Of great significance in the life of a shoe are also those zones of the upper lining lying under the stifieners located at the forward end and rear 55 end of the shoe, commonly called the box toe lining and the counter lining, respectively. As regards the box toe lining, the superposed box toe stiffener being relatively impervious allows little breathing of the foot thereat so that perspiration is concentrated thereat and badly affects such lining as well as the innersole. I have noticed that almost invariably the first part of a shoe to wear out is the box toe lining. To a less degree is this true of the counter lining, since the opening of the shoe is adjacent thereto and there is frequently sufficient play of the foot thereat to permit a modicum of ventilation absent at the toe portion.

While various attempts have been made to correct the foregoing faults in shoes, none have met with much success, largely because, in my judgment, they have been directed at a change in the steps of shoemaking or the parts entering thereinto. Thus, innersoles have been buffed so as to have reduced tendency toward cracking and they have been side-channeled with a view toward inducing their marginal portions to retain a fiat face next to the foot; and, in an efiort to make box toe linings resistant to the rotting efiects of perspiration, the linings have sometimes been im- 1 pregnated by squeezing stiffening agent as deeply as possible thereinto from the box toe stiffener during the pulling-over and bed-lasting operations.

I have found that it is possible .to treat an otherwise internally completed shoe of any one 7 of the various conventional makes in such a way as to overcome economically and in great measure the troubles heretofore traceable more especially to the innersole and/or to the box toe lining of a shoe. Generally stated, the practice of the present invention devolves about applying to the otherwise completed inside of a shoe a film-forming fluid at least over those areas which have heretofore been most vulnerable to deterioration during wear. The entire interior of the shoe can thereby be protected, including the entire exposed face of the innersole, its edges contacting with the upper.lining, and the exposed faces of both the box toe lining and the counter lining.

In any event, it isdesirable that the film-forming the innersole and the upper lining. The simplest way of finishing a shoe pursuant to the present invention is to'pour into the shoe an appropriate volume of film-forming liquid and then to manipulate the shoe so as to cause the liquid to make contact with the areas to be protected. Thus, after the liquid has been poured into a shoe, the shoe may be brought to an inclined position such that the liquid comes into contact with and coats the box toe lining. The shoe may then be restored to a horizontal position and tipped so as to coat the counter lining as excess liquid is being poured out of the shoe. A quicker and more practical method of applying the film-forming liquid is to spray it either alone or mixed with air.

through a suitable atomizer or spray-gun, the spray being directed against those internal regions of the shoe to be protected. Once the filmforming liquid has dried or set, the shoe is ready for wear; and the protective film not only imparts a. smooth finished appearance to the innersole so as to dispense with the need for a sock lining but tends to delay greatly deterioration of the innersole during service and thus to preserve the original shape or lines of the shoe.

- There are various film-forming fluids that may be employed for the purpose of the present invention, but I prefer to use a solution or dispersion of cellulose acetate in a suitable neutral volatile solvent such as acetone. Specifically, I may prepare the film-forming fluid by dissolving cellulose acetate in the amount of about 30 ounces per gallon of acetone to produce a substantially water-white or stainless solution of good filmforming properties and capable of cementing the marginal edge of an innersole tightly to the lining of the shoe. Another preferred film-forming fluid is polyvinyl acetate or other polyvinyl resin dissolved in alcohol, benzene, toluene, or similar volatile solvent. Another water-insoluble and desirable film-forming fluid is nitrocellulose dissolved in such volatile solvents as acetone, acetic ether, alcohol-ether mixtures, or the like. Still another one is shellac dissolved in alcohol. Less desirable results are secured from aqueous solutions of film-forming materials, such as casein dissolved in an aqueous solution of borax, which, however, are less expensive than the organic solvent solutions hereinbefore mentioned. The drying oils or varnishes are illustrative of another class of film-forming fluids that may be employed pursuant to the present invention, but they have the disadvantage of being too slow in their drying or setting to yield the desired protective films.

By the practice of the present invention, it is possible for a shoe manufacturer to use satisfactorily innersoles whose leather is more open and flanky thanthe leather heretofore considered satisfactory. Indeed, the more open or porous the innersole leather, the more easily does it absorb the film-forming fluid and become protected thereby. Accordingly, inferior leather innersoles protected according to the present invention may serve even better than good grade innersoles as heretofore used.

On the accompanying drawing,--

Figure 1 represents a longitudinal section through a welt shoe internally finished accordant with the present invention,

Figure 2 is a transverse section through the toe portion on the line 22 of Figure 1.

Figures 3 and 4 illustrate different positions of the shoe in the course of its being manipulated to effect the desired distribution of film-forming liquid over its interior.

The welt shoe illustrated comprises, as ordinarily, an innersole Ill to whose welt-receiving rib I I the marginal portions of the shoe upper and the welt l2 may be stitched, as appears best in Figure 2. The usual shoe-bottom filler I3 may occur in the shoe-bottom cavity between the innersole l0 and the outersole II which may be sewed as usual to the welt l2. The shoe upper is shown as including a box toe stiffener l5 and a counter stiffener l6 both located in between the upper stock I! and the lining l8.

The internal finishing film of the present invention is indicated generally by the numeral 19 and is shown as a continuous membrane covering the inner or exposed face of the innersole ID, of

that portion of the lining l 8 overlying the box toe stifiener l5, and of that portion of the lining l8 overlying the counter stiffener IS. The film-forming adhesive also occurs in between the innersole edge and the inner face of the lining and so serves to weld or bond together these parts at their seam or line of juncture, as shown in both Figures 1 and 2.

As already indicated, the simplest, although not the most practical, way of carrying out the internal finishing practice of the present inven tion is to pour the finishing film-forming liquid into a shoe which is otherwise internally and, if desired, externally completed. For the sake of simplicity merely, such practice has been illustrated in part in Figures 3 and 4. Thus, after the film-forming liquid has been poured into the shoe, has spread over the surface of the innersole, and has gone into the crevice between the innersole edge and the lining, the shoe is tipped to the position shown in Figure 3 so that the filmforming liquid accumulates as a pool 20 whose liquid level, indicated by the dotted line 2!, is sufliciently high to ensure the desired wetting of substantially the entire-box toe lining portion. The shoe is then tipped to the position shown in Figure 4 and the film-forming liquid poured out of the shoe while wetting of the back zone of the counter lining up to the dotted line 22 takes place. The entire job of wetting the interior of the shoe with the film-forming liquid is done so quickly and the viscosity of the film-forming liquid is such that such liquid is not given opportunity to get to the upper stock in amount to stain it. The film-forming liquid thus applied to the interior of the shoe may then be permitted to dry or set; and, when such liquid contains a volatile solvent that must be evaporated in order to deposit the solid film-forming substance, the internally flnished shoe is preferably placed in a warm atmosphere to promote the evaporation of the solvent.

When the film-forming liquid is sprayed, as is preferably done in actual practice, there is practically no danger of staining, since the amount and the localities sprayed are readily controlled. Of course, the film-forming liquid may be applied by brush or by any other suitable instrumentality; and, if desired, the finishing film may be extended to substantially all the surfaces presented by the interior of the shoe. Because of the smoothness and flexibility of the film thus deposited in the shoe on those surfaces, e. g., the counter lining, the innersole, and the box toe lining, coming into contact with the foot, smooth sliding of the foot even into a new shoe is promoted, dispensing with the need of such foreign aids as talcum powder in fitting the new shoe to the foot of the wearer.

I claim:-

1. In the internal finishing of otherwise internally completed shoes equipped with a lining for the shoe upper, that practice which comprises applying a fluent film-forming adhesive to selected localities in the otherwise completed shoe interior, including at least the exposed innersole surface extending forwardly of the front shank line andthe joint between the innersole edge and the shoe upper lining, and allowing such applied adhesive to develop into a dry film serving to bond the innersole edge to such lining.

2. In the internal finishing of otherwise internally completed shoes equipped with a lining for the shoe upper, that practice which comprises applying to the otherwise completed shoe interior a fluent film-forming adhesive over selected regions, including the joint between the innersole edge and the shoe upper lining, and allowing the adhesive to set into a dry film.

3. In the internal finishing of otherwise internally completed shoes equipped with a lining for the shoe upper, that practice which comprises applying to the otherwise completed shoe interior a fluent solution of moisture-resistant, filmforming material in a volatile organic solvent over selected regions, including the joint between the innersole edge and the shoe upper lining, and permitting the solvent to evaporate from such applied solution and thus to deposit an adherent film of such moisture-resistant material on such regions.

4. In the internal finishing of otherwise internally completed shoes equipped with a lining for the shoe upper, that practice which comprises applying to the otherwise completed shoe interior -a fluent solution of moisture-resistant, filmforming material in a volatile organic solvent over selected regions, including the joint between the innersole edge and the shoe upper lining and exposed innersole surface, and permitting the solvent to evaporate from such applied solution and thus to deposit an adherent film of such moisture-resistant material on such regions.

5. In the internal finishing of otherwise internally completed shoes equipped with a'lining for the shoe upper and a lining portion overlying the box toe, that practice which comprises applying to the otherwise completed shoe interior a fluent solution of moisture-resistant, film-forming material in a volatile organic solvent over selected regions, including the joint between the innersole edge and the shoe upper lining, exposed nally completed shoes equipped with a lining for the shoe upper and lining portions overlying the box toe and counter, that practice which comprises applying to the otherwise completed shoe interior a fluent solution of moisture-resistant, film-forming material in a volatile organic solvent over selected regions, including the joint between the innersole edge and the shoe upper lining, exposed innersole surface, and the portions of the lining overlying the box toe and counter, and permitting the solvent to evaporate from such applied solution and thus to deposit an adherent film of such moisture-resistant material on such regions. v

STANLEY P. LOVELL. 

